Month: April 2015

Hi everyone. The hubs was unexpectedly admitted to the hospital last week for an infection in his leg, which kinda threw all of my plans out the window. It was a long week, but he’s doing better and now that he’s finally home we’re getting back to the normal routine.

I’ll be back to working on all the projects I was hoping to share with you last week very soon, including the finishing touches on our wall-to-wall desk in the studio/office, a tea station in our kitchen and a gallery wall around the family room TV. So check back next week for those projects. Until then I wish you all health and happiness!

Spring in Alaska is fickle. It’s been warmer than usual which has me thinking about planting, and then we had snow again yesterday! Apparently I’ll have to give it a bit more time, but I’m bound and determined that we are going to get the back yard set up this summer! Last year, we were still getting settled and the priority was getting the fence in so the dogs would have room to run. We did get the yard hydroseeded late last summer, although I’m not sure how well it will come back this year after the dogs have been abusing it all winter. Hopefully the additional seed we put down last week will help get things going this season.

In the meantime I’m fine tuning my vision for the entire space. It’s gone through a few revisions, as I talk things through with the hubs and watch exposure, but I think I’ve created a plan to get the basics established this summer so we can build on them each year.

First up is the deck, which I cleaned last weekend to get the juices flowing. We pretty much ignored this space all winter while we focused on indoor projects, so I cleared the space and gave it a good sweeping. I dug out the outdoor rug I bought on the buy/sell page at the end of last summer for $10 and placed the Adirondack chairs and garden stools to create a seating area. I added the lovely lanterns on the hooks and a couple of throw pillows for a little style. It still needs a good pressure wash, but it’s a nice place to sit for a few minutes for now. Here’s a quick before and after.

The plan starts with building a sectional seating unit like this with storage underneath where the cushions can be kept during the winter. I’m envisioning an L-shape along the wall and out from the corner made of a few pieces which could be rearranged for other set ups. I might also do a few ottoman pieces like this to store the propane bottles for the heater and fryer. A table like this would provide a spot to stash little things like candles and bug spray when not in use, but I might just leave the space open since I could also store such things inside the L shape during the season.

The hub’s green egg table will occupy the corner of the deck where the egg currently sits with our new oil-less fryer next to it. I’m excited to finally see the table all finished, set up and ready to use.

The displaced Adirondack chairs will move to the firepit area that will be created along the edge of a pea gravel patio next to the deck. The pit itself will be created by stacking landscape stones around the freebie washing machine bin we snagged during construction. I love the idea of creating a cover that would make it also function as a table, especially with a little game board for fun!

Behind that, underneath the family room windows we’ll install a raised garden bed made of cinderblock like this, but with removable tubs like this which can one day be transferred to and from the greenhouse I’ll have one day as the seasons shift. I’d like to try a hanging strawberry planter like this, so that might hang from the eave between the windows or over top of the raised bed or maybe I’ll try something like this on the back of the shed.

The massive hot tub we scored on Craigslist has yet to be used because it’s just so huge and costly to run, so we’re passing it on to the family cabin down on the Kenai, where it should be much more utilized and appreciated during fishing season. We’ve got our eye on a few 2-person tubs and might invest in that later this year or next season.

I’ve realized this alcove along the side of the house where I originally planned to do a full garden just doesn’t get enough sun to be productive, so instead we’ll put the chicken coop here. I’d like something similar to this which should have a small footprint next to the house. Locating them just off the deck will make taking care of the chickens easier and the house should provide extra radiant heat during the winter to keep them cozy.

Beyond the coop I’m considering installing a potting bench with a simple design like this. I’m not convinced that I’ll use it enough to warrant the construction, so I might hold off on this idea until next year when I see how much need there really is. My other idea for the space is to build a smoke house – which I’m sure would get lots of use or a small tool shed to house things like rakes, shovels, etc. so they don’t take up space in the garage or the hub’s storage shed. If we go that route I could always add the potting bench or smoke house along the back wall of the garage, where I could see it from the laundry room.

Although we bought a canvas gazebo canopy on the buy/sell page last year, I decided it wasn’t the right fit for the deck so we resold it. Eventually I want to add a pergola to the deck with some sort of shade cloth, but that might be a few years down the road still. In the interim I plan to create a simple shade like this by attaching poles to the sides of the deck with a few simple brackets. We may have to install an eye bolt on the back of the house to complete the set-up but it should be much easier to take down quickly if there are winds in the forecast.

And no deck is complete without some sort of pest deterrent, especially in Alaska. Ours will come from the wine bottle tiki torches we had in Kodiak, but this time around rather than hang from a railing or post they will sit in holders like this around the perimeter of the deck. The poles for the bottles can be attached just like the shade poles mentioned above and I plan to fill the bottles half full with pebbles so they don’t require as much tiki fuel.

Finally, I’ll add some landscape around deck in the form of flower beds filled with perennials similar to the ones out front and along the far side of the house. I also plan to add a clematis in front of the big wheel the hubs found me, which is now tied to the fence near the deck. I may disguise the low area around it with a bit of a retaining wall to create a small bed in front of the wheel as well. We’ll see how far I get this year.

If I get all of this accomplished by fall and still have some decent weather to work with I may attempt to create a walkway like this from the patio to the back gate. So that’s the master plan. Watch for posts as we attempt each portion!

Does anyone else feel like we’re barreling through April? I can’t believe we’re half-way through the month already! It’s been another super busy week, but we’re slowly working on a few projects, including finishing up the wall-to-wall desk in the office and creating a tea station in the kitchen. I’ll share those updates soon, but today I thought I’d show you a little change we made in the guest room.

That room was a hot mess while we were installing the closet system. This is what progress looks like during the in-between stages! Just seeing this gives me hives. Luckily, I could close the door and somewhat ignore it until we got things back in order.

Now that the closet is done and my fabric stash is organized, I was ready to rearrange a bit. We finally brought back my family heirloom hope chest last fall when we did our big road trip. I wasn’t sure where we’d use it while we were building but, as the rooms came together I decided it would work best in the guest room. That meant the dresser needed to go elsewhere, so we moved it next door into the spare room, which I hope will one day be a child’s room. Here’s the space with the dresser and then the hope chest.

Since the hope chest is smaller and lower it now leaves the whole wall open for a large art piece. I’m contemplating a few ideas and will share some once I narrow it down a bit. I’m also toying with doing a full-length mirror that sits on the floor next to the chest in this awkward space just as you enter the room. I think guests would appreciate having a mirror in the room and it would give me a spot to do outfit pictures when I start doing fashion posts. Another option is to ditch the chair, which looks great but isn’t all that comfortable and put a mirror in the corner. If I did that I’d probably move the hope chest to the foot of the bed as a bench so there was still a spot to sit. What do you think?

I plan to have the chest refinished in a cream color on the base and a dark stain on the top, but that might not happen for a while. In the meantime it’s the perfect place to store all of the extra sheets and blankets. The dresser will also be refinished at some point, but looks good in it’s new home for now. (Please ignore the not-so-lovely elliptical which has since been eliminated.)

Little by little my plans for each space are coming together. I wish we were farther along, but looking back we’ve made pretty good progress in the 15 months we’ve lived here, especially considering we both also work full-time and run a side business! In the end what matters is that it’s home and those I love live there. 🙂

Can someone please tell me where the heck the week went? We spent a good deal of it dealing with a broken dishwasher, a security breach at our insurance company and damage to one of our couch cushions – all of which required calling various customer service centers, most of whom were not very helpful. I was actually so frustrated with the process I started writing a post about the experience, but felt that it was turning into a rant. Since I’d rather focus on more productive things I decided to share a fun little update I did on our back deck instead.

Spring in Alaska is very different than the rest of the country. There aren’t any flowers blooming here yet, but our occasional days of warmer temps and sunshine have me shifting attention to our outdoor spaces. Last year we installed two hooks on either side of the window on the back of the house for hanging planters. This year, I plan to create sectional seating under that area and worried that hanging baskets would be a ‘head hazard’ for anyone sitting or getting up. Since I didn’t want to take the hooks down, or deal with the holes that would create, I decided to hang lanterns on them instead.

I spotted these at Target during a recent visit and picked up two to try out for just $13 each. I really liked the style and size, but worried that the open top might collect water which could become a mosquito breeding ground if I didn’t take it down when not in use.

The width did fit my new Luminara candles but I wasn’t crazy about how the height worked out. You couldn’t see the flame, which is kinda the point.

Luckily I had a plan B. I also found these at Pier 1 and because I had a reward coupon and a gift card left over from Christmas (thanks sis!) I got them for FREE! I’ve always liked this style and have looked at similar designs many times before. Granted the top isn’t fully covered, but it should reduce the amount of water that might collect if I do leave them up.

Since these are taller than the first option they fit the Luminara candles much better. They also seemed a little sturdier than the first option too.

And who doesn’t love FREE?! I plan to clean the deck and start getting things set up this weekend, so watch for a post about that soon, followed by one on my plans for the yard this season. Until then I hope you get outside and enjoy some spring sunshine! 🙂

So remember way back when I told you we planned to add shelves above the wall-to-wall desk in the studio? Well it’s finally happened. Although the desk itself hasn’t had any additional progress since you last saw it, the finished shelves give you a sense of what the whole thing will look like when we’re done. And now that we have some extra storage space, we can organize and move things around to finish the rest of the pieces while we continue using the space. Here’s a quick recap of how they came together.

After much debate and a good deal of Pinterest browsing, I decided to go with the rustic industrial shelves you see everywhere these days. Yes it’s trendy right now, but both the hubs and I love the look, plus it compliments the craftsman style of our home so we’ll be happy with it long after others move on to the ‘next’ thing. The first step was gathering enough supplies, which sound simple, but turned out to be a little difficult. The hubs had to visit several stores and event shop online to find enough of the pipes, nipples and flanges in the right sizes. And even when he did find enough, it wasn’t always the same color so we ended up painting all the parts to match. The metal supports start with a flange which screws onto the base of a piece of pipe. The other end of the pipe is capped with a nipple, which also screws on. The hubs attached the supports with extra long screws, directly into the studs for additional strength. You might notice that some of the pieces seem higher than others in the picture above. That’s because he initially attached each lower support with just one screw and we made them pivot on the single attachment to decide which height we liked best. We ended up going with the higher option just to give ourselves a little extra space when sitting.

Once we had the lower supports lined up and screwed in, he moved on to the top supports, directly above. We didn’t have a specific height in mind, so we just eyeballed it to decide what would work best with what we planned to have on the lower shelf. It looked a little strange from across the room without the boards, but this is how it sat for several days while we searched for wood that wasn’t split, bowed or cracked on multiple trips to various local hardware stores.

Eventually, the hubs found two decent boards in the right size, length and most importantly, price range. He set them up in the garage and I got to staining. I forgot to take a picture before I started, but you get the basic before and after idea.

I had originally planned to stain the boards, then do a white crackle paint over top and randomly sand areas to create the faux reclaimed barn wood look described here, but once we saw the color of the stain and how it brought out the grain of the pine we fell in love with it and decided to leave it as is. Realizing that the stain we’d used was a primer, stain and sealer all in one, helped reaffirm that decision – especially when we considered that we wanted the same finish on both the desktop and the shelves. I was secretly relieved that we wouldn’t be painting and sanding in the house, because my allergies would have kicked into overdrive if that had happened.

When the boards were dry the hubs cut them to size and I helped him carry them in. All we had to do was set them up on the supports with the cut edge hidden against the wall. It was at this point that I broke out in my happy dance. Literally. I’m just giddy with how it turned out. They provide a TON of storage space for my photography props, which until now have been piled up against the opposite wall.

You might notice that the far end of the shelves don’t go all the way to the wall. That’s by design. We will eventually add sliding barn doors to the inside of this doorway so we needed room for the doors to slide open next to the desk. Since the space is on the hubs side of the desk I rarely even notice it.

I’ve started organizing things on the shelves and will share the final set up when it’s done. It’s a process to decide what goes where, but it’s already making the desktop clearer and the room feels larger without the pile of props in the corner.

The next step is staining the desktop, which should happen this week. After that will be setting up the pull out shelf for the printer and then we’ll move on to finishing the cabinets with paint and new hardware. And finally, I’ll add some decorative finishing touches to pull it all together and make it cozy. So stay tuned to see each step in the coming weeks! 🙂